Industrial Control for Process Automation - Market Share Analysis, Industry Trends & Statistics, Growth Forecasts (2026-2031)

The industrial control for process automation market size is expected to grow from USD 76.42 billion in 2025 to USD 81.89 billion in 2026 and is forecast to reach USD 115.72 billion by 2031 at 7.15% CAGR over 2026-2031. This report is Segmented by System (SCADA, DCS, and More), Component (Hardware, Software, and More), Service (Consulting, System Integration and Deployment, and More), End-User Vertical (Oil and Gas, and More), Communication Network (Wired Networks, and More), and Geography (North America, South America, Europe, and More). The Market Forecasts are Provided in Terms of Value (USD).

Global Industrial Control For Process Automation Market Trends and Insights

Increasing Industrial Automation

Industrial facilities continue to implement programmable logic controllers and distributed control systems to mitigate labor constraints and maintain continuous operation of high-value assets. Siemens reported an 18% year-over-year increase in Simatic S7-1500 PLC orders in 2024, primarily driven by battery-cell gigafactories that require deterministic sub-10 millisecond cycle times. Chemical plants are replacing pneumatic loops with digital valve positioners that provide predictive diagnostics, resulting in a 30% reduction in unplanned shutdowns. A 2024 update to IEC 61131-3 introduced object-oriented constructs that enable engineers to reuse code across multi-site rollouts, thereby compressing commissioning schedules and reducing lifecycle costs. Automation density - measured as control points per USD million of plant assets - has increased by 12% since 2020, reflecting stricter environmental discharge limits and an uptick in real-time emissions monitoring.

Expansion of Smart Process Industries

Plant owners are collapsing data silos by linking control layers with enterprise resource planning systems. Schneider Electric reported a 25% growth in licenses for its EcoStruxure platform in 2024, as food and beverage processors sought closed-loop optimization that aligns distillation cut points with downstream demand. The Industrial Internet Consortium has endorsed OPC UA as the cross-domain interoperability layer, providing vendors with a reference blueprint and reducing integration risk.China financed 150 smart process pilots in 2024, targeting a 20% reduction in energy intensity by 2027. Early adopters are already reporting payback periods shrinking from five to three years. Smart-plant investments now prioritize real-time scheduling, electronic batch records, and digital twins, shifting value from hardware to analytics and data stewardship.

Shortage of OT-Cybersecurity Talent

The widening gap between cyber threats and qualified defenders is slowing project execution. The International Society of Automation found that 40% of IEC 62443 posts remained vacant beyond six months in 2024, resulting in a 22% increase in median salaries. Many operators postpone critical patching because they lack staff able to validate firmware without halting production. Universities and vendor academies trail demand, locking in a multi-year bottleneck that tempers otherwise strong growth.

Other drivers and restraints analyzed in the detailed report include:

• Integration of IIoT Sensors and Edge AI
• Energy-Efficiency Mandates in Process Plants
• High Capital Investment and ROI Uncertainty

Segment Analysis

Manufacturing execution systems are projected to grow at a 10.04% CAGR to 2031, outpacing the overall industrial control for process automation market. In 2025, programmable logic controllers held a 31.58% share of the industrial control for process automation market, but incremental value is migrating toward higher-level orchestration as firms seek real-time visibility and electronic batch records. Distributed control systems continue to underpin continuous processes, such as refining and pulp production, due to their fault tolerance and embedded model-predictive control capabilities. Across the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries, hybrid architectures are emerging that combine a unified dashboard with process data, quality metrics, and scheduling, thereby reducing operator cognitive load and improving response to deviations.

The demand for digitally native manufacturing execution systems is underpinned by regulatory frameworks, such as the United States' FDA 21 CFR Part 11, which mandates the creation of traceable electronic records. The 2024 update to ISA-95 endorsed event-driven messaging, which speeds handoffs between enterprise resource planning systems and plant-floor controllers. As a result, the industrial control for process automation market size tied to manufacturing execution systems is shifting toward subscription revenue, anchored in analytics, quality management, and digital twin support. Vendors court this growth by pre-integrating libraries for batch genealogy, recipe management, and serialization, shortening deployment cycles and raising switching costs.

Software revenue is expanding at a 9.37% CAGR, eclipsing hardware’s contribution to the industrial control for process automation market. Although hardware still accounted for 46.35% of revenue in 2025, containerization is enabling control strategies to run on standard servers at the edge, thereby reducing demand for proprietary controllers. Siemens Industrial Edge saw 35% license growth in 2024 as food and beverage plants prioritized flexible recipe changes and rapid line restarts. Meanwhile, high-reliability safety instrumented modules certified to IEC 61508 SIL 3 maintain premium pricing, creating a two-speed hardware landscape.

Edge gateways that translate legacy fieldbus traffic into Ethernet and wireless protocols are a notable strength in hardware, as demonstrated by double-digit unit gains at Moxa and Advantech. Yet the broader hardware segment continues to grapple with commoditization and margin compression, prompting vendors to bundle analytics and cybersecurity subscriptions. Consequently, industrial control for process automation market size growth is disproportionately concentrated in software modules for advanced analytics, threat monitoring, and predictive control.

Complete Report Scope:

• By System
  • Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA)
  • Distributed Control System (DCS)
  • Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)
  • Manufacturing Execution System (MES)
  • Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
  • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
  • Human Machine Interface (HMI)
  • Other Systems
• By Component
  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Services
• By Service
  • Consulting
  • System Integration and Deployment
  • Support and Maintenance
• By End-user Vertical
  • Oil and Gas
  • Chemical and Petrochemical
  • Power
  • Life Sciences
  • Food and Beverage
  • Metals and Mining
  • Other End-user Verticals
• By Communication Network
  • Wired Networks
  • Industrial Wireless Networks
• By Geography
  • North America
    • United States
    • Canada
    • Mexico
  • South America
    • Brazil
    • Argentina
    • Rest of South America
  • Europe
    • Germany
    • United Kingdom
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • Russia
    • Rest of Europe
  • Asia-Pacific
    • China
    • Japan
    • India
    • South Korea
    • South-East Asia
    • Rest of Asia-Pacific
  • Middle East and Africa
    • Middle East
      • Saudi Arabia
      • United Arab Emirates
      • Turkey
      • Rest of Middle East
    • Africa
      • South Africa
      • Nigeria
      • Rest of Africa

Geography Analysis

Asia-Pacific dominated with 38.18% of 2025 revenue and is poised to advance at a 8.89% CAGR through 2031, comfortably above the global trajectory. China’s dual-control policy spurred advanced control rollouts that sliced energy per unit output by up to 12% in pilot petrochemical sites. India’s INR 150 billion Production Linked Incentive scheme (USD 1.8 billion) has triggered rapid investments in distributed control and manufacturing execution across 200 API facilities. Japan’s aging workforce accelerated automation in the packaged food and chemicals industries, driving double-digit domestic orders for Yokogawa. South Korea’s battery and chip fabs adopted sub-nanometer quality loops, leaning on Siemens and Mitsubishi controllers to achieve uniformity at scale.

North America and Europe remain hotspots for modernization. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued 320 industrial control advisories in 2024, sparking an estimated USD 2.1 billion in retrofit services. The European Union’s NIS2 directive enforces IEC 62443-aligned risk management, and Germany’s chemical sector has invested EUR 1.2 billion (USD 1.3 billion) in digitalization initiatives, resulting in a 15% reduction in reactor emissions per ton. Brownfield adoption dominates spending as asset owners patch cybersecurity gaps and overlay analytics on aging control layers.

The Middle East and Africa exhibit rising potential tied to hydrogen and carbon capture megaprojects. Saudi Arabia’s NEOM green-hydrogen plant will utilize Siemens' distributed control system to orchestrate 4-gigawatt electrolyzer arrays. The United Arab Emirates expanded the Al Reyadah carbon capture facility with Emerson controls. Brazil’s pre-salt fields have introduced subsea programmable logic controllers, and South Africa’s miners are piloting private 5G and edge gateways. While currency swings and commodity price shifts temper broader adoption, lighthouse projects in hydrogen, CCUS, and mining will seed future growth.

List of Companies Covered in this Report:

• Siemens AG
• ABB Ltd.
• Schneider Electric SE
• Emerson Electric Co.
• Rockwell Automation Inc.
• Honeywell International Inc.
• Yokogawa Electric Corporation
• Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Omron Corporation
• General Electric Company
• Endress+Hauser Group Services AG
• Phoenix Contact GmbH and Co. KG
• HIMA Paul Hildebrandt GmbH
• Bosch Rexroth AG
• FANUC Corporation
• Beckhoff Automation GmbH and Co. KG
• B and R Industrial Automation GmbH
• Advantech Co., Ltd.
• MOXA Inc.
• National Instruments Corporation
• ICONICS, Inc.
• CoreTigo Ltd.
• Spectris plc (Yokogawa’s partner - HBM/BTM)
• Johnson Controls International plc
• Aspen Technology, Inc.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support